School´s out for the summer

Hey everyone,

I just thought that I would write again, since it´s been a few weeks and a lot of things have changed since then.  In the last two weeks I decided not to go to Mexico, so I´ll just hold on to my research and my proposal and my presentation that I was going to use to try and get scholarship money.  I might have to go some other time, and it was really fun to get ready for it.  My field study group is kind of upset that I´m bailing out on them, but I´d just much rather get married.  So I am.  I proposed to Erin Mower last week, and we´ve been engaged ever since.  So far so good.  We´re planning on August 24th, in Idaho Falls.

I have one day of school left.  I have finished all my projects.  Some of them nearly killed me, but I´m done now and even though I still have two finals left, I am surprisingly not stressed as much as I thought I would be.  One final is take-home, and it isn´t due until Thursday, and the other should be fairly easy.  It will be a four-part final-- an essay, a group oral presentation, an individual oral report and a few other written things.  I don´t have any idea what they´re going to ask me about, but it will be fine.  It´s all stuff that I have internalized because I own my education.  No jumping through hoops or memorizing useless facts for this class.  It´s all incredibly useful and valuable information that I actually think about quite often outside of class.  It´s still my favorite class ever at BYU.

I tried to apply for the Spanish major the other day, but they wouldn´t let me.  Since I already declared the English Language major I had to talk to a so-called advisor.  She didn´t listen to me at all.  She made me explain why I wanted to do a double-major and I told her that I´ve been planning on it for a while.  I just didn´t apply for the Spanish major at first because I want to do the Spanish Teaching major, but I haven´t done all the prerequisites to apply formally for the teaching major.  But I talked to two professors who both agreed that it would be a good idea to get a teaching certificate for both Spanish and TESOL, and that getting another degree in English Language would make me a very good candidate for either grad school or a teaching position right after graduation.  Think of it, I would be authorized to teach Spanish and ESL.  So I thought it was a good idea.  And I thought that I would easily get to add the other major, seeing as I will already 25 credits of Spanish by the end of the year.  Hmm.... but I apparently have no idea what I want to do with my life, according to the lady I talked to.  She told me to go and think about it and do some research and come back later.  I don´t want to.  I´d rather just have her add the major.  I´ve been thinking about this for months, I´ve been researching for months.  But she refused.  I don´t like that.  If she really doesn´t want me to have two majors, is it up to her to decide?  What if I would rather cut out the ELang major and keep Spanish?  I can´t because she won´t even add Spanish to my records.  Bah, humbug!  My English Language academic adviser actually told me that getting two degrees and a certification in TESOL was one of the best things I could do with my talents and my desire to teach.  I hate working through other people to get what I want.  I had to go talk to my Spanish academic advisor (who happens to be my favorite professor from last semester) and got his signature saying that I am a good applicant for the program.  Shouldn´t that be enough?  The purpose of getting his signature and talking to him about the major is to help me make sure that´s really what I want to do.  I don´t understand why this lady in the humanities office has the right to veto my decision that was already approved by both professors.

Other than that, things are pretty swell.  More next week, hopefully.

Brian